Electronic and Computer Music, Revised and Expanded Edition (review)

In 1994, I was working on designing a new course at McGill University on the history of electoacoustic/computer music. Joel Chadabe's Electric Sound hadn't been published yet, and neither had Curtis Roads's Computer Music Tutorial. There were older books, such as those by Jon Appleton, Barry Schrader, and Allen Strange, but they were either out-of-print or out-of-date, or both. Then there was Electronic and Computer Music by Peter Manning. It was in print, and less out-of-date (first published in 1985). It was with some relief that I learned that this book had been updated (in 1993) and was coming out in softcover (late 1994—I recall it did not actually arrive at the bookstore until sometime after the start of term in winter 1995). The updates on MIDI technology and the shift to microcomputer were useful, along with a listing of compact discs, all new since 1985.

Electronic and Computer Music is a book outlining the history of the field. In addition, it devotes a good deal of ink describing specific studio techniques and technical concepts. Also, I was pleased to see that it does not ignore the innovative applications of electronic and digital technology in popular music, even if this topic is treated comparatively briefly.

In the decade since the release of the second edition, much has changed. Too much to track, but Mr. Manning has nonetheless expended a great deal of effort updating the book, particularly in the realms of MIDI, computer technology, and digital audio. This part of the book has been greatly expanded and reorganized, as Table 1 shows.

Rather than make a futile attempt to be current and comprehensive, the author instead traces the history of the various topics, providing information about early research and concerns, products and applications that have been developed, and directions that have been pursued more recently. This approach provides a good foundation for understanding the background and technology underlying current products and software applications. To be up-to-date, one would need to supplement the book with articles and announcements from journals, digital audio-related magazines, and relevant Web sites.

Table 1.

Changes in the New Expanded Edition of Electronic and Computer Music

1993 edition	2004 edition
1. The Background to 1945	1.
I. Developments from 1945 to 1960	I.
2. Paris and Musique Concrète	2.
3. Cologne and Elektronische Musik	3.
4. Milan and Elsewhere in Europe	4.
5. America	5.
II. New Horizons in Electronic Design	II.
6. The Voltage-Controlled Synthesizer	6.
III. The Electronic Repertory from 1960	III.
7. Works for Tape	7.
8. Live Electronic Music	8.
9. Rock and Pop Electronic Music	9.
IV. The Digital Revolution	IV. The Digital Revolution to 1980
10. The Birth of Computer Music	10. The Foundations of Computer Music
11. New Horizons in Digital Technology	11. From Computer Technology to Musical Creativity
12. The MIDI Synthesizer	12. The Microprocessor Revolution
13. From Microcomputer to Music	V. Digital Audio
Supercomputer
14. Conclusion	13. The Characteristics of Digital Audio
	VI. MIDI
	14. The Development of the MIDI Communications Protocol
	15. From Analog to Digital: The Evolution of MIDI Hardware
	16. From Microcomputer to Music Computer: The MIDI Dimension
	17. New Horizons for MIDI-based Technologies
	VII. Desktop Synthesis and Signal Processing
	18. Personal Computers and Sound Processing
	19. Music Workstations and Related Computing Architectures
	VIII. The Expanding Perspective
	20. Performance Controllers
	21. New Horizons in Synthesis and Signal Processing Software
	22. Conclusions

The first three sections of the book, up to "The Digital...